April 2, 2010
Final Stats
ST. GEORGE, Utah - The UNLV Rebels (21-14) scored seven times in the bottom of the eighth inning to win a thrilling come-from-behind game Friday against the Idaho State Bengals by a 9-8 margin in St. George, Utah. UNLV, who was playing its first extra-inning game of the year, rallied with three hits, while scoring the final two runs off of wild pitches in BYU's Pre-Conference Tournament.
UNLV stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the eighth needing seven to tie and fortunately, got eight for the win. Laura King began the inning on second base due to the international tie-breaker rule and was quickly joined when a pinch-hitting Chey Farley walked. Paige Emerson loaded the bases up with a single. Marissa Nichols then got the offense running with a bases-clearing three-run triple to center that pulled UNLV within three at 8-5. Nichols didn't stay on third too long, as Tara Bendt knocked her in with a single up the middle. A walk to Jaci Hull put runners on first and second and brought Nora Maschue into the game in relief of Kandis Clesson.
Kendall Fearn followed Hull's lead and took a walk of her own to load the bases. Ashli Holland pulled UNLV within one at 8-7 with a sacrifice fly to left to score Bendt from third and push Hull and Fearn into scoring position. With Laura Briones in the batter's box, Maschue uncorked a wild pitch that tied the game allowing Hull to cross the plate. Clesson was then brought back into the game, but threw wildly to Briones and scored Fearn from third for the game-winning run.
The game was scoreless through four innings until each squad got a home run in the fifth. Jessica Baca cranked a solo shot to center off of Traci Odegard, while Holland followed suit in the bottom half of the frame with a two-run shot that scored Hull. Prior to the fifth only eight hits had been recorded and 10 runners had been left stranded.
ISU evened things up in the seventh with a run off of two hits. Baca led off the inning with a single, which ended Odegard's day in the circle, as Jessica O'Connor was summoned from the bullpen. O'Connor walked the first batter she faced to put runners on first and second. Terah Blackwell tied things up with a single to left to score a pinch-running Jocelyn Horton.
The Bengals kept their offense revving with six runs in the eighth. Erin Olander walked to put runners on first and second joining Megan Miller, who was already on base due to the tie-breaker rule. Courtney Darby then singled through the left side to put ISU up 3-2 scoring Miller. Kylie Wagner then relived O'Connor in the circle, but had her first batter reach on a fielding error which loaded up the bases. Blackwell then came up big again with a two-run single to push the margin to three runs at 5-2. Following a fielder's choice, Taylor Marchione then hit a one-run single before Desiree Hoffman closed out the scoring with a two-run single.
In all, the teams combined to leave 20 runners on the base paths, as UNLV had 11 to ISU's nine.
Wagner improved to 7-3 on the year in one inning of relief. She was touched for three runs on three hits.
Maschue was saddled with the loss in only 0.1 innings of work. She allowed one run and one walk.
UNLV is back in action Saturday afternoon in St. George with a split doubleheader against Idaho State (2:30 pm MT/1:30 pm PT) and Cal State Bakersfield (5:30 pm MT/4:30 pm PT).
